


while you're here, and long after you're gone

by choephori



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 21:32:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15203918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choephori/pseuds/choephori
Summary: Tony can't sleep. Neither can Peter. Together they come to an understanding.





	while you're here, and long after you're gone

"Hey."

Tony looks up from his workbench to see Peter, looking a little bedraggled.

"Hey yourself," he replies, smiling up at him.  
"Do you know what time it is?" Peter asks.  
"Yeah, like 11 right?"  
Peter laughs.  
"It's 2am."

Tony looks back up at that, surprised. He could have sworn that only a few hours had passed since he headed to the lab.

"You need to go to bed."  
Tony scoffs at that. Like he needs sleep. Like he can bear sleeping, after everything that has happened. Like he hasn't tried, desperately.

"I'm fine, besides, I'm not finished with this."  
Peter looks at him with doleful eyes, and asks him how long it's been since he had a proper night sleep, and honestly, Tony can't actually remember. Not that he will tell Peter that, of course.  
Peter interprets Tony's silence as meaning "too goddamn long".  
"You need to sleep, Tony."

Slightly irritated that Peter hasn't dropped this already (god knows Pepper or Rhodey would have likely given up by now, knowing that Tony is too stubborn for his own good when he wants to be), Tony deflects.

"Maybe you should go to sleep, kid."  
Peter bursts out into laughter at that, with a touch of hysteria at the edges. 

"How is that even funny?"  
Peter stops laughing instantly.  
"Maybe I'm not asleep for the same reason you aren't."  
"I'm in the middle of working, you have no such excuse, kid."

Peter looks him directly in the eye, with an oddly stern look for a such young and usually adorable man. Not that Tony should be thinking of Peter in that way, anyway. Somehow his thoughts always lead him down an inappropriate path when he thinks too long about Peter.

"Cut the bullshit. You are working, but that could easily be done during the day. You are choosing to do it now because you are trying to avoid sleeping, because you are scared."  
Tony scoffs again.  
"Yeah, and what exactly am I meant to be scared of, my pillow?"

Peter sighs, and makes a move to perch himself on Tony's worktable, bringing him closer to Tony.

"I can't sleep at night," he reveals. "Every time I do manage to actually fall asleep, all I can dream of is- is what happened. Dying. Everything ending."

Tony sucks in a sharp breath. Talking about everything that happened with Thanos is not exactly what he signed up for. Yet looking at Peter now, he knows he has to. He sees him for the first time as he really is, not the front that he desperately puts on everyday. He sees the dark ring of purple under his eyes, the slightly pallid tone and the the look of something Tony has been hiding from in his eyes; the look of pure, raw exhaustion at life. He sees himself in Peter's eyes.  
Peter's fidgets a lot while he continues, wringing his hands and his leg bounces up and down.

"And I'm sure that you are probably having a similar problem, maybe, I don't know, I could be completely wrong I guess-"

Gone is the man who confidently confronted Tony just moments against, and is replaced by what Peter really is; a young, scared teenager who has been through way too much.  
Tony wants to open up to him. 

"Hey, it's okay. Yeah, you're right even though I don't want to admit it. It's just hard to sleep when you know every time you do you just see everything bad that has happened. And then I wake up, and I'm alone and-"  
"You don't have to be alone."  
"What?"  
Peter smiles brilliantly.  
"Why don't we sleep together?" He says, looking way too innocent than those words suggest.  
Tony literally chokes at that.  
"I meant like, just sleeping!" Peter says panic. "Unless, like, maybe more if you'd like?"  
He gives him a look that Tony can tell he obviously meant to be sultry but he marred slightly but the look of panic he still has on his face. 

For once in his life, Tony Stark is speechless. He gapes somewhat unattractively at Peter, unable to find the words to say what he feels, what he wants.

At Tony's silence, Peter looks even more anxious than he did before.  
"Oh, um, I think I misread the whole situation. I'm just gonna go, please forget I said anything!"

As Peter leaps off the table, Tony realises if he lets Peter go there is a potential he will screw this up forever. He grabs Peter's arm, and pulls him close to plant a light kiss on his lips. As he pulls away, he says  
"You didn't misread anything, kid."

Peter's eyes are saucers. Then, he smiles, and it's the most wonderful thing Tony thinks he's ever seen in nearly half a century of living. 

"Well then, I think maybe in that case we should go to bed."  
It's now Tony's turn for his eyes to be saucers. Peter laughs at the look on his face.

"Not like that! I don't put out before the first date, mister."  
Tony chuckles lightly at that, and grasps Peter's outstretched hand. He knows that they'll have a lot of talking to do tomorrow, but for the moment it is time to rest.


End file.
